Plane protest: Iran ’ s president urges unity

President Hassan Rouhani appealed for unity and flagged the need for radical changes to the way Iran is run, after a wave of angry protests over the accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner.

The Kiev-bound Boeing 737 was shot down in a catastrophic error just after take-off from Tehran, killing all 176 aboard. One week on from the disaster, Rouhani called for “national unity” on state television.

“If there was a delay” by the armed forces to release information about what happened, “let them apologise”, he said.

The blunder and its handling by authorities sparked four nights of protests in Tehran calling for those responsible to resign or be prosecuted, leading to at least 30 arrests.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said people were demonstrating because they were deceived.

“[Over the] last few nights we’ve had people in the streets of Tehran demonstrating against the fact that they were lied to for a couple of days.”

Amnesty International said it had evidence security personnel used “unlawful force” by targeting protesters with rubber bullets, teargas, pepper spray and airgun pellets.

State news agency IRNA said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, would lead Friday prayers in Tehran — the first time he has done so in nearly eight years.

The Ukraine plane was downed with Iran on high alert hours after it had fired missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq. Iran launched the attack in retaliation for a US drone strike that killed Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Rouhani blamed the Americans and their allies for causing “insecurity” across the Middle East.—